By Kieron Gillen on January 17th, 2009 at 12:46 pm.
We’re not going to let a little fact like us strenuously and repeatedly arguing against the validity of NPD’s statistics regarding PC Gaming cause us to not post something fun like this. NPD have provided IGN a list of the Top 20 PC Games sold in… oh, you can read the post title, yeah? You’ll find them and a little commentary beneath the cut…
1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
2. Spore
3. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
5. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
8. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Exp Pk Collector’s Ed
9. Fallout 3
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
11. Call Of Duty: World At War
12. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
13. World Of Warcraft
14. Sins Of A Solar Empire
15. Warcraft III Battle Chest
16. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
17. Crysis
18. Left 4 Dead
19. Diablo Battle Chest
20. The Orange Box
Yes, it appears that Blizzard are very rich.
Worth re-stressing that none of this includes online sales. That’s clearly going to impact people like Valve who you suspect have a more-than-average level of sales through that channel – Left 4 Dead’s actually a top 10 game on the 360 where there’s no online sales to worry about, for example (Which I suspect has surprised quite a few people – there was an assumption that Left 4 Dead would fall on its face amongst many console journalists I know. The power of a really fucking good game, eh?).
Back to Blizzard… yeah, they’re very rich. World of Warcraft’s positions are to be expected, perhaps – those millions of players have to come from somewhere – but seeing Warcraft III remain the second-best selling RTS of the year is enormously impressive. While it’s always been successful, you suspect that the Brand-value of the whole World of Warcraft phenonema is leveraging into Warcraft III’s continuing success. In the same way that they sell Warcraft books and comics and whatever, they’re selling Warcraft III. That it’s a really good RTS game, of course, can’t hurt.
Most heart-warming position has to be Sins of a Solar Empire. Also another big online seller by all accounts, but it being the biggest RTS game of the year is incredible news for Stardock and Ironclad. It’s about as PC a game as you can get, and a novel and unique experience. Yay them.
Biggest selling FPS? Call of Duty 4, which shows what a juggernaut it is. While not the monster it was on the 360, that’s a lot of money for them. Call of Duty: World at War also shows its face. And Crysis and Orange Box are two other 2007 releases which has continued to sell. I think it was Jim who suspected Crysis would have some legs to it, as people who buy PCs buy it just to see what their new beasts can do.
The third and fourth positions are interesting – Age of Conan beating Warhammer Online. Probably worth remembering that Age of Conan had a good five months lead over Mythic’s game to get those sales, but still noteworthy. With Fallout 3 down in ninth place, the predominance of the MMO over more traditional RPGs continue. And that Fallout 3 is the closest thing to a traditional RPG on the list also says much.
And people are still buying the Sims.
Given the fact that the Warcraft III Battlechest is *still* selling loads of copies in America, I find it slightly odd that it hasn’t been available over here for a few years now…
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People are still buying Diablo? That speaks a lot for Blizzard and their quality pc games. You can have mixed opinions about WoW(WoW destroying the pc market), but blizzard know how to make very good games, market them and then sell them in huge amounts. And by huge amounts, i mean shitloads.
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RLacey: I saw a couple of copies in my local game over the summer, it is about – just not in such large numbers. Doesn’t help that W3 is now a “budget” title (you’ll find it in the 2 for £15 offer at game for instance) – so retailers aren’t overly interested in stocking larger full price versions of it.
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You realise that’s a top 20, not a top 10, right?
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Look at the ratio between very high-end game sand low-end games on that list. Does that have anything to do with it?
I buy Blizzard games because if they don’t work, I don’t deserve to play them. I mean, you can get Diablo running on a piece of cardboard with “Windows” written on it.
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Diablo box set nearly sold as much as Crysis? lol
Why is it only Blizzard that can make a good PC game atm?:/
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Is this “retail” a list that ignore digital downloads?
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Retail, for the purposes of this report, means “sold in a physical box”.
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Tei: Read the article.
KG
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This list is fucking terrifying.
Npd have a whole host of rules about what “doesn’t count” for years rollercoaster tycoon would have won pc npd but it was budget so it didn’t figure. I wouldn’t be shocked to learn creature creator was robbed of its place here. Nice showing by cod4, wonder if your at war will have legs. As much as i like sins i wish a better rts like company of heroes had shown up, ww2 is hella played out though.
That a space rts did well might finally have relic make homeworld 3.
…fucking mmos
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The power of IGN-approval.
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That “W” word sure seems to pop up a lot.
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The interesting thing about L4D selling well at retail is, now all of those people have Steam on their computers, and yes, a lot of them will be people without enough bandwidth to download games, or like me who just wanted to save cash, but a big chunk of the sales will be to people who haven’t used Steam before, and who are now being exposed to wonders like all of XCOM for cheap and downloaded in minutes, or whatever else floats their boat.
Long story short, for Valve, every retail copy of L4D (or the Orange Box etc.) is a potential convert to Steam.
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Paul Inc said : “People are still buying Diablo? That speaks a lot for Blizzard and their quality pc games.”
i think it says more about the LACK of quality of the other games.
if you cant beat games released 5 years ago that were pirated to hell and back 5 years ago (and you can still find them pretty easily), you are doing something wrong, and its not the pirates fault …
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Is it safe to admit not at all liking Sins of a Solar Empire now?
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‘…fucking mmos’
The fact that a genre I despise is very much keeping PC gaming alive istough one to swallow. I only wish I could get some enjoyment from such high profile releases.
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Helio’s made a good point. What retail games weren’t included on that list? Budget titles are big sellers, but apparently don’t count for the list, but Sims expansions do? You could practically argue that Blizzard commissioned the list.
Speaking of, if it was a UK list, it wouldn’t have Diablo or W3 since all we get are the budget versions. I wonder what exactly the UK list would end up like…
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As soon as IGN named it as their PC game of the year, it became compulsory not to like it.
[/angry]
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I have bought exactly one of those games. I don’t know whether to feel cool or sad.
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I don’t get Blizzard games. Just not my thing. I guess that makes me somehow less than human, huh?
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I’m moderately surprised Mass Effect isn’t up there.
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The NPD data isn’t necessarily invalid. It reports retail sales. What’s invalid is using them to draw conclusions about the health of the PC gaming industry as a whole. That’s all.
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“Why is it only Blizzard that can make a good PC game atm?”
Blizzard? Good games? More like Blizzard has made a few mediocre titles that managed to obtain cult followings (see Starcraft) suddenly your run of the mill RTS is apparently the pinnacle of RTS and it’s successor Starcraft 2, despite being nothing more than a flat out rehash with Warcraft 3 graphics and bloom, will probably snuff out any other RTS games released this year.
Long story short, Blizzard games are what Halo was to the Xbox and Xbox360. Nothing special but immensely popular.
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Blizzard certainly knows how to market its games, thats for sure.
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Larington, who would have thought the promise of playing with Ozzy Osbourne was that compelling?
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“Long story short, Blizzard games are what Halo was to the Xbox and Xbox360. Nothing special but immensely popular.”
You’re 50% right. Blizzard knows how to make nothing special, and then polish the living fuck out of it to make it special.
Also, Starcraft II and Warcraft 3 have COMPLETELY different playstyles, one is focused on putting together small warbands, the other is LOL RESOURCES!
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Zoey Death Scream Spammer, at the risk of sounding like a Blizzard fanboy, I think you’re talking trash. Particularly so likening Blizzard games to Halo… give me a break.
There was nothing ‘run of the mill’ about SC as an RTS when it came out. The only thing that came close was Total Annihilation.
Don’t mistake ‘popularity’ for ‘mainstream crap’.
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Golly. I am indeed Very Surprised at all the MMO loathing.
Cough.
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I agree, Butler.
Halo’s way better than Blizzard’s games.
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the whole “everything needs multiplayer” idea should just die, DIE! i say, even worse they keep making LAN play either difficult or impossible killing the only reason i might have to use the feature
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Blizzard got a great lead with WarCraft 1, 2, were smart to dump Pax Imperia (and several other projects later on) and to buy Condor for Diablo 1. They just never gave it away after that, despite many other crew departures and being sold two times.
StarCraft looked like a disappointment (Ron Millar left to a direct competitor, ’97 had already delivered more technically and graphically impressive RTS’s, etc.) and it really was WarCraft in space if you only sticked to the multiplayer/skirmish (the “extreme” race diversity and great balance were only important to a few online elite players) but that singleplayer still holds up as one of the best sci-fi stories in any game. Can’t blame people wanting to rediscover the old glories.
They’re not Bungie, they’re just in a league of their own, not only in quality/finishing but in support as well (many publishers could learn a thing or two from the Blizzard support website and support/respect for older titles). With three different active franchises some might say they play it safe but that’s the only grudge one could really hold against them if you ask me. And no, I don’t like all their games but that’s mostly due to the (sub)genre itself, not because they couldn’t make a proper PC game. Blizzard isn’t the only one making quality games on PC of course.
About Age of Conan being up so high; surprised me as well but then again it was the first really big PC title of last year, some console ports aside. Publishers should have learned their lesson about filling up the gaps by now I hope for 2009 because first of half of 2008 wasn’t really a period to get excited about on PC.
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If a planetside type action mmo was up there or eve with its economy? But no, substandard tactical turn based combat mmo’s. I don’t mind them getting rich from subs. But that they sell more than quality non mmo games horrifies me.
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Comparing Bungie to Blizzard? Jesus chirst I may have a long fucking cry now on your behalf.
Bungie with 1 average game and the rest incredibly shitty.
Blizzard with 1 shitty game and the rest incredibly awesome. (Wow being shit)
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Popular games! Divergent opinions! Expressions of disbelief!
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Zoey Death Scream Spammer said: “Blizzard? Good games? More like Blizzard has made a few mediocre titles that managed to obtain cult followings (see Starcraft)”
Of all the games Blizzard made you picked Starcraft to ilustrate the point?
Starcraft is to me still pretty much the best RTS of all time.
Although, with WC3 in mind I can’t say i expect too mumvh from Starcraft2.
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Bungie has had at least three incredibly awesome games. Five or six if you’re better at the Myth games than I am. Those being Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon: Infinity, Myth, Myth II, and Pathways into Darkness, in nonchronological order.
Halo doesn’t enter into it.
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I just love that Sins beat Left 4 Dead at retail. Of course everybody bought Left 4 Dead on Steam, but I’m sure Sins sold quite a bit on Impulse. I really need to pick that game up.
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Sins being listed does indeed warm the ol’ ticker, yes. But Stardock already gave me Sci-fi nirvana with GalCiv 2/Dark Avatar/Arnor etc; Sins just wasn’t my cup of Darjeeling, no.
Oh, and guys, exactly what breed of journalist thought Valve + Co-op + Zombies would = Fail? Do these people even play computer games? Poor show.
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I think retail sales surpassed Impulse sales, but each copy sold on Impulse gives Stardock 2x as much money.
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Blizzard, like Apple, has a mindless cult following. Plus best selling does not mean best quality, by any measure. Just because the mouth breathing Blizzard fanatics don’t know anything about them, doesn’t mean there aren’t much better games available.
Simply compare this list with a top 20 in movies or books and you’ll see a very similar pattern of “people” mostly liking fluff with the occasional gem. It’s good to see Sims and Warcraft still selling high. It just means there’s more new and casual gamers that might some day buy some real games.
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Personally, I think the only truly great Blizzard games were Starcraft and Lost Vikings. Warcraft III was a fairly bad RTS, redeemed by the fact that everyone was playing it and that, like very Blizzard game, it was polished from release to eternity.
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With regards to Diablo II, I think it’s also important to bear in mind that the announcement of Diablo III will have certainly given it a sales boost this year. Heck, I remember reading that when Starcraft II was announced, Starcraft briefly [i]re-entered[/i] the PC top 10. These are brands with an incredible following.
Personally I’m actually looking forward to Diablo III. From what I’ve seen they’re making changes that’ll make it more accessible to less hardcore players like myself.
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One thing I’m surprised about is that that no-one has really mentioned what a fantastic showing Left 4 Dead has made here. If you take into consideration how late in the year Left 4 Dead was released and the fact that a massive proportion of the sales would have been via Steam which are discounted from the figures, this really is an impressive effort. It certainly deserves it in my book.
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Gravatar Pidesco says:
“Personally, I think the only truly great Blizzard games were Starcraft and Lost Vikings. Warcraft III was a fairly bad RTS, redeemed by the fact that everyone was playing it and that, like very Blizzard game, it was polished from release to eternity.”
I agree completely.
RnR racing was also cool. :D Though they did that one with Interplay.
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Calling anyone who thinks Blizzard make great games a “mouthbreathing fanatic” is what I’d expect from one. Blizzard has never made a bad game, and while that doesn’t explain their enduring popularity (which clearly comes off the back off brand recognition) it shows they understand the business like few others.
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WC3 is getting too much hate. It might not be your gameplay style, but I guess it is mine, as it’s probably my favorite RTS of all time. Wayyy better than Starcraft. These sales probably don’t reflect it’s quality though: it’s most likely a mix of WoW fans and potential DoTA players, not RTS fans buying this.
This is actually a pretty good list, all things considered. Only 3 Sims titles? Not that bad, especially considering the rest are mostly respectable. Next year Sims 3 will probably be at the top.
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i think the problem was that wc3 was originally designed for playing just with heroes and a few units, but then turned it into a reskinning of starcraft and it just sucks because almost every unit is melee based and any battle between groups of them looks like a clusterfuck with dudes running in circles and however has more units wins
for what ive seen of starcraft2 its the same thing with improved AI to take care of the micromanagement because you couldnt possible find a specific unit inside all that bloom
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This may have already been mentioned but I was gutted I couldn’t get a retail copy of Sins of A Solar Empire outside of North America. It’s cropping up here and there now, but the first time I saw its box was after xmas =/
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Nobody here has even mentioned Spore. :O
Spore is second, but it’s also top of the piracy lists.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!!
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That would clearly indicate that all the former Spore pirates then went along and bought legitimate copies. Obviously.
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Actually spore being second is good news. It means there’ll be many more thousands of annoyed customers who find their purchase is actually nothing more than a rental, when out of the blue the game suddenly demands they purchase a new license because they’ve triggered the activation code one time too many.
When their regular customers wise up to this and start complaining, then maybe then EA will drop their draconian DRM scheme.
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I have to laugh at all the Blizzard hate. Here’s an easy demonstration to support the proposition they make good games: Look at that list. That should say enough. As people have pointed out further up in the comments games like WC3 and Diablo are easy enough to pirate and they’re still selling their arses off. Gamers vote with their wallets.
They were definitive gaming moments when they came out and to larger degree, WoW has been the PC gaming flag bearer of the last few years. That’s not something to carp about. We have better games as result of Blizzard being in the marketplace. More importantly, everyone, even the Blizzard haters can see how much work they put into their games and they polish and polish and polish until they’re as good as they can make them. I think this deserves some recognition. Blizzard aren’t the bogeymen, or at the very least they shouldn’t be, as they are helping PC gaming continue to be a viable proposition for games publishers. Every smash hit Blizzard releases helps sustain the PC gaming industry.
Complaining that a game is so popular (WoW) that it’s strangling out competition isn’t really very much of a complaint. Gamers make that decision when they choose what to play, and if WoW dominated for a few years there, it was because they took it to the next level. It’s a better broader MMORPG market as a result of WoW. MMORPG’s before WoW were difficult to get into and relatively unpopular (compared to overall pc gaming market) and lots of folks are now willing to explore that market as a result.
More generally that list for a non-online games chart doesn’t hold any great surprises, apart from Sins of Solar Empire, that’s really cool to see that in there.
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I like Blizzard.
I think every single one of their games has been “good” even if I haven’t enjoyed all of them (Diablo, f’rex).
There’s a reaction going on here to WoW succeeding disproportionate to its actual quality– it’s a great game, but it benefits a lot from network externalities (I play, because my friends play) and a sort of snowball effect that accrues to the market leader. That breeds resentment. That its outlandish success has spurred many other studios to follow it, seemingly at the expense of traditional RPG titles also breeds resentment.
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Being a generally lazy person and ignoring the comments, I prefer to post based on what I think you probably said. Yeah MMO’s a rampant thing here, don’t see why people hate them for who they are though. Free market and all that, unless you are a bank and want a handout…. Anyways, they aren’t entirely evil, if you don’t like the game or gameplay don’t play or pay, Anyways nice list thingamajig, I agree with the VALVe bit though, their digital sales probably put them on that list much more.
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“And people are still buying the Sims.”
…and I bet they’re non professional gamers. It should have producers and market managers re-consider the power of the “others”, new slices of potential buyers.
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I see a lot of Blizzard game sales coming from similar demographics to the Sims. Low system specs, high profile, good connections between franchises etc. all makes for high sales. But more than that, I think that a huge section of consumers just don’t think of games in terms of the last six months the way that “we” do.
Here’s an idea: people buying games like they buy DVDs. Often several years after release, often when the price has come down significantly. Which is what we in PC Gamer Hardcore-land call “budget”.
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caesarbear says:
Blizzard, like Apple, has a mindless cult following.
caesarbear is dead-on: Blizzard has a mindless cult following. I mean, how intelligent do you have to be to do quest after quest of killing 20 frostbite owls or 15 nightlicker spiders?1
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NPD Group is useless talking on gaming sales. Those numbers are not valid without online sales (50% of total sales aprox).
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“Bungie has had at least three incredibly awesome games. Five or six if you’re better at the Myth games than I am. Those being Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon: Infinity, Myth, Myth II, and Pathways into Darkness, in nonchronological order.”
I love you. <3
I’m kind of curious at the World of Warcraft hate. Even if you were to have played it and disliked it, how could you hate it? I understand people would rather see another game/company topping the charts, but look back a few years and The Sims was topping said charts.
On the topic of Warcraft 3, I really, really didn’t like it. I was incredibly witty in calling it “Babysitcraft 3″ (haha!) because you spent 90% of your time making sure your hero had enough attention so he’d bother to not suck in combat.
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Just wanted to add, JKjoker made my day with this comment:
“for what ive seen of starcraft2 its the same thing with improved AI to take care of the micromanagement because you couldnt possible find a specific unit inside all that bloom“
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Blizzard titles since the very beginning and until today have possessed a little “umph” over most counterparts in their respective genres and so people feel like they will get their money’s worth with them. Their reputation has only gotten better in recent history and that in my opinion has lead to them being and remaining a megaton company and leading force in the PC gaming market. These guys are like old Nintendo and Disney World rolled up in a box sitting at Wal-Mart for 30 to 50 bucks. Every kid wants it and men and women who don’t want to grow up can’t resist. Btw, I don’t play WoW…anymore…so far. Best of luck to you guys! Wootsauce on everyone else
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YEY!!! L4D MADE IT XD
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Sins of a Solar Empire outsold Left 4 Dead?!
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